Just Another Day
by Chihiro77
Summary: Takes place between Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air. Draws some thing from book 2, the movie, and the book. Just another day for Howl and Sophie.
1. 8:00

8:00

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Also, I apologize to anyone named Alexander who might be reading this. Nothing personal. Also, forgive me because my spell writing skills are not that great. At the end I have notes for people who have not read the book or for those who haven't seen the movie since I'm pulling things from both.

Sophie POV

8:00

Sunlight poured through the open window beside the bed. With a yawn I forced my eyes open and smiled slightly at my surroundings. Even through I now shared it, Howl's room hadn't changed much. There was still plenty of clutter that he would not allow me to remove. Surprisingly, he cleaned it himself so that I could not see the floor and windows.

I turned over and found myself face-to-face with the vain wizard himself. He looked extremely innocent and calm when he slept, his arms protectively around me. I noticed that he fell asleep holding me close every night, right next to his newly beating heart.

After his heart had been returned to him I saw slight changes in his behavior. Now he got upset more often, even letting a few tears escape on the first night we slept in the same room; although he insisted that it was because he never knew such happiness. Spells wore him down a little more than they used to and his temper with himself was shorter. However, the changes were so small I hardly noticed them.

I crawled out of his arms and hoped onto the cold floor. It seemed I was the first awake. The castle was quiet, the only time of day that it ever was. I turned the doorknob as slowly as possible so as not to wake Howl. At first I would not have cared but as time passed, his duties for the king became more and more tedious, making him extremely exhausted. I walked across the small hall and opened the door to Michael's whitewashed bedroom. He was on the floor, snoring slightly. For some reason he never managed to stay on his bed when he slept, although he insisted on keeping it in his room. Probably to hide presents from Martha.

I walked to him and knelt down, shaking him slightly. Although he usually woke on his own, I liked doing it myself. He muttered in his sleep before his eyes fluttered open. When he saw me he groaned slightly.

"Morning Sophie…" After my curse broke he began to call me 'Sophie' much to my relief. I despised being called 'Grandma' or 'Aunt' or 'Howl's Mother' when people asked who I was. Now I was able to tell them I was Sophie Jenkins, wife of the Royal Wizard Howl, a title I wore with pride.

After he stood up, rubbing his eyes, I left and opened the small door leading downstairs. Calcifer glowed softly in the ashes. I put a few logs into the hearth, which caused him to shoot up and out into the room.

"Watch it!" He yelled, lighting the room angrily.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to poke you. Now, get back in there and put your head down," I ordered him sweetly, hoping to get him to comply.

"No way! I'm a free demon now, I'm not cooking."

"You know, now that you're not connected to Howl I can put water on you without remorse."

"You wouldn't," he smiled smugly. "You've threatened me with that a bunch of times and you have yet to follow through. You're all talk!"

I went to a cupboard and grabbed a cup, filling it with water from the sink. Slowly, I walked over to him, allowing him to see my every move.

"I'll fly up the chimney," Calcifer threatened nervously.

"I can block you – I'm closer to it."

"Ok! Ok!" He yelled, sinking back into the fireplace beside me and bending over. With a smile I put the cup down on the table and grabbed the heavy black pan from its place on the wall. As I was carrying it over Michael came pounding down the stairs, flinging the door open.

"Sophie you know you shouldn't be lifting that!" He yelled, grabbing it out of my hands.

"It's a pan Michael; I think I can handle it."

"Yeah but Howl'll kill me if anything happened to you," he set the pan on Calcifer's head and I firmly pushed him out of the way so I could begin laying down some bread.

"What about me?" I turned around to see Howl standing in the doorway, smiling sleepily. He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around the bump of my stomach. "How's the baby?"

I sighed softly, "kicking. Constantly." He laughed and kissed the top of my head.

"I told you a happily-ever-after with me would be hair-raising."

"You are hair-raising. The baby doesn't know any better, unlike you."

"Actually, children born to magical parents tend to be abnormally intelligent."  
" Then what happened to you Howl? Were you a fluke," Calcifer piped in.

Howl shot him a small glare. "At least I am not being used as a cook top 'great fire demon,'" he muttered sarcastically.

He let go of me and sat down at the bench, yawning widely. For some reason he found a lot of what I said lately humorous.

"We still need to pick out a name," he mused, head in his hands as he watched me cook. "For a boy I like Alexander. It has a magical flare about it don't you think? And for a girl I think I prefer the name Amethyst. It's different."

I couldn't help but snort at the names he proposed. "Amethyst is alright I guess, but defiantly NOT Alexander. It's too common for our family and I don't know…I was thinking Morgan." He thought about it for a minute.

"That's not too bad. But I still like Alexander better."

"I told you no! Alexander sounds too pompous," I retorted, setting more slabs of buttered bread down into the pan roughly.

"It does not Sophie. It sounds confident and proud."

"It sounds like a name for a fool! You like it so much change your name but I will not allow my child to be called something so ridiculous."

"We'll keep thinking," he sighed, giving in. It was too early to be fighting already. "So about later today, are you positive you want to try to put up with Megan?"  
The name filled me with dread. I had yet to meet Howl's sister in person but from the impression I got from the time he took Michael and me to see her when I was still cursed, I was not looking forward to it. Still, she was my sister-in-law, even though she was ignorant to that fact. She had a right to know about Howl's family.

"I'll be fine, now eat. Where did Michael go?" I set a plate of toast in front of him. It had taken me weeks to figure out how to brown the bed without turning it into charcoal.

"Outside. I think I heard your sister calling for him," he began nibbling thoughtfully.

"Martha's here?" I took the pan off Calcifer, who groaned with relief, and threw open the door. Sure enough my youngest sister was in front of the flower shop, chatting idly. She spotted me and ran to me excitedly.

"Sophie! How are you? Is Howl treating you ok? My goodness you're getting big!" She grabbed me in a hug, smiling widely.

"I'm fine. How are you? Everything alright at Cesari's?"

"Of course! I just came to give Michael some pastries before I have to get back. See you late ok? Tell Howl I said hello." She began walking down the street, waving as she left. I took Michael's arm and began to lead him back inside.

"Come on you lovebird; breakfast is ready."

When we came back in Howl had finished and was walking to the bathroom.

"I'll be back," he muttered with a flick of his wrist.

"In about a day," Michael whispered to me, laughing softly.

"I'll look at that spell I had you do yesterday when I come out Michael. Just leave it on the table," we heard him call from the restroom.

The boy paled and grabbed a piece of paper from the bench and read it furiously. "No, no, no, no, no! I forgot about this! Sophie can you help me with it?" He showed me the old sheet with a grim expression. It was a faded yellow, clearly ravaged by time. It read:

Into the jungle search

**For the one who adorns all colors.**

**Mimic his cloak and you too can hide**

**Not in the shadows, but clearly seen by all eyes.**

**Repeat this softly and you too will see:**

**Everything is not as it seems to be.**

'_Tell me what this means.'_ It read underneath in my husband's elegant writing.

"This may take a while," I set another plate of toast on the table as we got to work.

_**I am pulling some things from Castle in the Sky (like Morgan) but this is before all that. Hope you enjoyed chapter 1! I don't know if this'll be cool or not but each chapter will be a different hour of the same day (chapter 2 will be a 9:00 and so on) and told through someone else's POV (Point of View). Next chapter's Michael's! Please review…Please? It makes me update faster… **_

For those who never read the book

_**In the book Sophie has two younger sisters. Lettie who is training under her husband, Wizard Sulivan (who is male and a good guy), and Martha (really her step-sister) who works at the bakery, Cesari's. Martha is in a relationship with Michael and they are engaged.**_

_**In the movie Michael was named Markl and shown as a small boy. In the book however, he is about 15.**_

_**Howl is really from Wales (Where the black on the front door is really suppose to lead). He has a sister named Megan who is married with 2 children (Neil and Mari). She thinks Howl is good for nothing and is constantly nagging at him to get a job (I don't think she knows about Ingary…). Howl took Michael and Sophie there when he had to return a piece of Neil's homework.**_

_**If there's anything else please PM me and I will explain.**_

For those who never saw the movie

_**Howl's room is shown as extremely cluttered with things that you would not expect a man in his twenties to own (stuff animals, toys, and whatnot).**_

_**Calcifer is shown as a yellow and orange flame with two eyes and arms. He's actually quite cute.**_

_**If there's anything else please PM me and I will explain.**_


	2. 9:00

Sophie sat in her chair, staring at the spell in her hands

**9:00**

Sophie sat in her chair, staring at the spell in her hands. I had been out with Martha yesterday and completely forgot that Howl had given me work to do. Last time I had forgotten, Howl had blamed himself, saying he was a bad tutor. Green slime had been everywhere.

"Well, let's start at the beginning. It's referring to some animal that lives in the jungle and I'm guessing it's either rainbow or that the color varies," she handed me a piece of toast and turned to Calcifer.

"What do you think Cal?" I asked the flame hopefully.

"Nope, I am forbidden to help with any of your homework. You should have done it yesterday," he crackled mischievously.

I pouted in disappointment. "An animal that lives in the jungle and is different colors? A snake? A frog? It can be anything Sophie! It's hopeless," I sighed in defeat. "I'll clean up the slime since it's my fault for not doing it."

"I will not put up with more slime in the house. Once was enough. We'll simply have to finish it before he comes out of the bathroom. Let's look at the next part then."  
"It's obviously some kind of spell for invisibility. Then again, it's not the kind I'm use to seeing." Usually invisibility spells were straightforward, no riddles. This one had a hidden meaning.

"What if…" she stopped talking and shook her head. "Never mind."

"Please tell me!" How could she hold back on me now? She could have said that we give Calcifer legs or turn me purple and I would have considered it. Desperation will do strange things to your thinking process.

"Well what if this animal is from Howl's world and not ours?" The words came to her slowly as she weighed them.

I was about to tell her that I we had no chance then when I remembered when Howl came back from Wales when he first took me on as an apprentice. He had an armful of books from a library over there. I had helped him carry them upstairs and stash them under his bed.

"Come on Sophie! We need to look under the bed, I think Howl has a few books from his world there!"

She stared at me in disbelief for a few seconds before she rose and followed me.

We soon discovered that Howl hadn't gotten rid of some of his possessions as Sophie and I had though; he hid them under the bed. After a wasting precious minutes digging through the junk that had collected over the years I came across a large white book depicting numerous alien animals. I shoved everything back under and began to carry the book downstairs, Sophie trailing behind me. The book was heavy, easily weighing ten pounds. The table shook as I set it down and quickly began to flip through the colored pages. We stopped several times to stare at the strange things, hardly believing they could exist.

"My God what is _that_!?"

Sophie pointed to a giant animal with a smaller version of itself emerging from its stomach.

"One of the largest macropods," I read aloud, "the western grey kangaroo feeds on grasses. Long after it is able to move about on its own, the young of the western grey kangaroo enters its mother's pouch to avoid danger, to sleep, or to travel."

She shivered, most likely at the idea of having a pouch and carrying the baby around in it until it was a teenager. At least, that was how I viewed it.

In a about a quarter of an hour we had decided that the animal mentioned was not a humpback whale (an terrifying large animal that lived in the oceans), hippopotamus (which had a mouth big enough to swallow Howl and his ego whole), or an ostrich (an ugly flightless bird). We were surprised to discover that there were some normal animals in the strange world Howl used to call home. We came across frogs, fish, and chickens, along with some others.

"Michael I think we've found it," Sophie shouted out suddenly, pointing to a thing on a stick. I wasn't sure what it was with a triangular head, for hands (that seemed to have thumbs from the way it was clinging), bulging eyes, and a very long tail. She read the caption quickly, barely breathing.

"Chameleons are famed for their highly developed camouflage, but not all color changes are in response to the environment. The Knysna dwarf chameleon Bradypodion damaranum (top) is predominantly green at rest, but males develop the brigh color pattern illustrated as a threat display to other males. The Malagasy chameleon Chamaeleo lateralis (above, right) is also usually dull green in color when resting among the foliage but takes on the striking disruptive pattern shown here when disturbed."

I blinked a few times, very confused. "Can you repeat that in a language I'll understand?"

To my surprise it was Calcifer who answered, smiling wickedly. "Basically, it's a lizard that changes colors a lot but mostly when it's scared."

"This has to be it Michael," Sophie gabbed the page with her finger.

I grabbed the piece of paper with the spell on it and read the spell once more.

"**Into the jungle search**

**For the one who adorns all colors.**

**Mimic his cloak and you too can hide**

**Not in the shadows, but clearly seen by all eyes.**

**Repeat this softly and you too will see:**

**Everything is not as it seems to be.**"

Even though I now that I knew the animal was a chameleon I was still at loss as to what the spell did. "Everything is not as it seems to be," I muttered softly to myself. I was about to ask Sophie what she though when she screamed. I looked up to find her staring at me in utter horror.

Chapter two is finally here! I know it took me A LOT longer than promised but I was at camp for a week and then I was sick a lot and I spent a four days down my grandmother's and I'm making excuses so I'll shut up now.

**It was brought to my attention that there is a typo in the "For those who never read the book" of the pervious chapter. Martha is Sophie's half-sister NOT her step-sister. Thanks to hamie for pointing it out!**

**Also lots of people told me that Morgan is a Welsh name and were asking why Howl didn't suggest that name. My reasoning behind that is I can see Sophie going through a ton of trouble to find a name from Howl's world that he would like only to have Howl thinking on the total opposite side of the spectrum.**

**All animal descriptions came from ****Encyclopedia of Animals (Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians)****. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Well this took forever. Sorry. It's Howl though which should be VERY interesting – it was definitely entertaining to write (though very hard for some reason). Enjoy!**

**10:00**

**Howl POV**

The scream from the other room rocked me to my very soul. 'Sophie' my heart pounded and then…sank? with dread. How could your heart sink if it's in your chest? Did that mean it was now in my feet? I didn't sit still long enough to ponder – Sophie was in danger. Shooting out of the tub, I managed to grab a towel before I flung open the door, holding it around my hips.

"What happened? Are we being attacked?" My heart gave yet another jerk. Blasted thing seemed to be on the fritz. That or getting revenge for the many years I did without it. "Is it the baby?"

She was pale, panting heavily, and wide eyed. When I notice she had one hand over her heart and another on her stomach I made a chair fly over to her. She collapsed in it as I sprinted over. Oh…now was the time to panic. My mind went completely blank. What do you do when babies are being born again? "Uh…breathe! Ya you breathe! Don't panic!" I turned around to do god alone knows what when something sharply came in contact with the back of my head. Eyes ever so slightly streaming, I looked at my wife who, sure enough, had her hand raised.

"What was that for?"

"Hysterics," she said calmly. Sometimes I really hate how in control she is of her emotions. I wonder if most women are like that?

"You're the one who screamed. Fine, next time I won't come running to your rescue."  
"I didn't scream because something happened to me and the baby's fine. It's Michael!"

I gave a quick survey of the room; skull, Calcifer, table, Sophie, magical door.

"Yep, no Michael. Did you finally drive him out?"

"Of course not. It's that stupid spell you asked him to do yesterday."  
Ok now I was extremely confused. "What does that have to do with anything? I never told him to perform it. Why is he working on that today?"

Forget being confused, now I was suspicious. Darn emotions need to stop jumping around so much.

"Well you see…I swear if you dare bring the slime I will never forgive you. He forgot to do it and was trying to get it done before you came out of the bathroom."

"Oh I see. Why didn't he just tell me?"

"Because he said the last time he forgot you freaked out and did the green slime routine."

I fixed my towel and pushed my hair out of my eyes. "Sophie, he didn't do it five times in a row."

"Well he failed to mention that."

"Obviously. I'm going back to what I was doing." I turned around and headed for the bathroom once more.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Spend less time in the bathroom!"  
"It's habit?"

"You're not going out to seduce girls, so it's pointless."  
"That's what you think…" I couldn't help but mutter. She deserved a little payback.

"WHAT!?"

"You have a death wish don't you Howl?" Calcifer naturally butted in.

"I was joking!" I hightailed it out of there before I found something else flying at my head.

In the end Sophie came and got me after another half an hour. As dangerous as she is, she's cute when she gets angry. She was dressed nicely for once, in a light yellow dress that I had given her for her birthday.

"Ok let's go," she headed for the door and I obediently followed her.

"Michael I want you visible when I come back!"

We entered Megan's world and began walking down the street.

"I still don't understand why you want to put yourself through this."

"We've been over this Howl. She should know that her family is getting bigger."

"You don't understand."

She stopped walking and turned to glare at me.

"Then please enlighten me."  
"She lives in a box. A neat and proper box. Everything inside the box is in her control and follows her rules. Everything outside of her box is worthless and frightening. I am in her box yet she can't control me, that's why we don't get along. Now I'm just dragging more of the outside into her life."

She was silent but began walking again.

"I don't want to put you through this Sophie."  
"I'm a big girl; I can handle her. Besides maybe it's time she opened her mind a little."

We reached the house and fearless as usual she knocked on the wooden door, the sound louder than it needed to be. No one came for a few minutes and just when I was about to say no one was home and we'd try again another day the door opened.

"Yes? Oh…you." My sister's smile dropped and she was about to say something when she noticed Sophie. "No. I don't care who she is Howl I will not take her in! Tell me that bump is not your doing. I swear if you got some poor girl pregnant…" She trailed off, looking pale.

Sophie smiled, clearly she remembered her last meeting with my family. "Sophie Jenkins, Howl's wife, it's nice to finally meet you."

"Wife?" Megan looked back and forth between the do of us and for a second I thought she was going to fall over in a dead faint.

"I apologize for not telling you we were coming but aren't you going to invite us in?"

Sophie is brave, so very, very, brave.

**_For Those Who Have Never Read The Book:_**

**_At some point Howl mentions how he is a coward (but we all love him anyway) and he can only be brave if he is convinced he is a coward. Very bad explination but my cousin has my book...it makes sense, really it does._**


End file.
